Cooroora Mountain in Pomona – it’s not for the faint hearted!

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty full on actually – in a great training way. On Saturday I did two rides on the Sunshine Coast – one was 60k and pretty full on hill wise and the second one was more sedentary and a recovery ride of 15k. The next day I got up and climbed up Mount Cooroora in Pomona.I thought I might be able to jog up bits of it to get a short run in but noooo way. It was the toughest climb I have done in a while.

Home to the annual King of the Mountain race and also where my husband grew up I  have always looked at the mountain in Pomona and thought – yeah I would like to climb that in training and maybe one day do the King of the Mountain.

So after our two bike rides on Saturday we got up at 4.45am and climbed the mountain… All I can say is I take my hat off to the guys that run the King of the Mountain race as it was an extremely confronting and tough climb. Being afraid of heights didn’t help but I was determined to face my fears head on.

It felt like a simple trot in the hills at the start and I thought – yeah this is alright, but my friend Paul said –

“Zoe we haven’t got to the mountain yet this is just the warm up”.

I soon realised what he meant. The guys – Paul and my husband told me when they were growing up in Pomona that there were no steps or rails, people simple scrambled up and down the mountain. Now there are rails in some places but not all and when I say rails I am referring to very simple chains that at one point were keeping me from dropping down and breaking a few delicate bones!

At one point I didn’t want to go any further as we ran out of chains to hold onto but they both pushed me and I am glad I did as the view at the top was spectacular.

Coming down was tough but nothing like the climb up. I felt a lot more confident and happier than going up and was very happy when I finished!

I figure sometimes I have to push myself right out of my comfort zone in training as it makes me realise how much more I have in me. We often get held back by our fears and thinking we can’t do something – but I want to encourage you that I managed to get up that mountain despite having a fear of heights and lived to tell the tale 🙂

Bye for now 🙂